In this paper, we investigate the real gas flows which occur within organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbines. A new method for the design of nozzles operating with dense gases is discussed, and applied to the case of a high pressure ratio turbine vane. A Navier–Stokes method, which uses equations of states for a variety of working fluids typical of ORC turbines, is then applied to the turbine vanes to determine the vane performance. The results suggest that the choice of working fluid has a significant influence on the turbine efficiency.

This paper describes a method of improving the cooling of the hub region of highpressure turbine (HPT) rotor by making better use of the unsteady coolant flows originating from the upstream vane. The study was performed computationally on an engine HPT stage with representative inlet hot streak and vane coolant conditions. An experimental validation study of hot streak migration was undertaken on two low-speed test facilities. The unsteady mechanisms that transport hot and cold fluid within the rotor hub region are first examined. It was found that vortex-blade interaction dominated the unsteady transport of hot and cold fluid in the rotor hub region. This resulted in the transport of hot fluid onto the rotor hub and pressure surface, causing a peak in the surface gas temperatures. The vane film coolant was found to have only a limited effect in cooling this region. A new cooling configuration was thus examined which exploits the unsteadiness in rotor hub to aid transport of coolant towards regions of high rotor surface temperatures. The new coolant was introduced from a slot upstream of the vane. This resulted in the feed of slot coolant at a different phase and location relative to the vane film coolant within the rotor. The slot coolant was entrained into the unsteady rotor secondary flows and transported towards the rotor hub-pressure surface region. The slot coolant reduced the peak time-averaged rotor temperatures by a similar amount as the vane film coolant despite having only a sixth of the coolant mass flow.

In this paper we investigate the three-dimensional unsteady real-gas flows which occur within Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbines. A radial-inflow turbine stage operating with supersonic vane exit flows (M ≈ 1.4) is simulated using a RANS solver which includes real-gas effects. Steady CFD simulations show that small changes in the inducer shape can have a significant effect on turbine efficiency due to the development of supersonic flows in the rotor. Unsteady predictions show the same trends as the steady CFD, however a strong interaction between the vane trailing-edge shocks and rotor leading-edge leads to a significant drop in efficiency.

In this paper, vane trailing-edge losses which occur in organic rankine cycle (ORC) turbines are investigated. Experiments are performed to study the influence of dense gas effects on trailing-edge loss in supersonic flows using a novel Ludwieg tube facility for the study of dense-gas flows. The data is also used to validate a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow solver. The computational simulations are then used to determine the contributions to loss from shocks and viscous effects which occur at the vane trailing edge. The results show that dense gas effects play a vital role in the structure of the trailing-edge flow, and control the extent of shock and viscous losses.

This paper presents a study of the effects of two types of hub coolant injection on the rotor of a high pressure gas turbine stage. The first involves the leakage flow from the hub cavity into the mainstream. The second involves a deliberate injection of coolant from a row of angled holes from the edge of the stator hub. The aim of this study is to improve the distribution of the injected coolant on the rotor hub wall. To achieve this, it is necessary to understand how the coolant and leakage flows interact with the rotor secondary flows. The first part of the paper shows that the hub leakage flow is entrained into the rotor hub secondary flow and the negative incidence of the leakage strengthens the secondary flow and increases its penetration depth. Three dimensional unsteady calculations were found to agree with fast response pressure probe measurements at the rotor exit of a low speed test turbine. The second part of the paper shows that increasing the injected coolant swirl angle reduced the secondary flow penetration depth, improves the coolant distribution on the rotor hub and improves stage efficiency. Most of the coolant however, was still found to be entrained into the rotor secondary flow.